Chapter Two - Agharta

As you head to this mission, you'll witness a rather mysterious cutscene that will set the pace for the rest of the stage. Gabriel will begin to fall past a cliff, but he suddenly uses his cross to stop his fall. As he crawls up to the platform above, an enemy stalks him. But then, an unknown blond female shows up and uses a mysterious crystal shard to scare the beast away. You'll bear witness to her summoning some sort of devilish creature, but once she's done her job in getting rid of the pest that wants to kill you, she'll jump off, suggesting with a nod of her chin that you should follow her.

If you attempt to follow the woman directly, you won't be able to. The game will prompt you to instead seek an alternate route. Do so by backtracking to your starting position, and then bearing rightward. This will lead to a severed staircase, with a seemingly-insurmountable chasm separating you from the ruins on the other side. However, a keen eye will reveal a whip hook on the far end of the chasm. Take a leap of faith and extend your whip to reach the hook, and then swing across. A dead body containing the scroll you seek should be at your feet once you land, but be aware that after you raid the body for its contents, you'll be attacked by some Small Trolls.

After acquiring the first scroll and fending off the Small Trolls that were guarding it, you can move leftward up some stairs, and towards the source of some of those Trolls. After going left, run towards the screen, back towards the direction in which you started. You should find another body there, containing another scroll for you to acquire and read.

Though this place seems pretty labyrinthine (and it is, in a sense), you'll still be funneled down into the same location regardless of the two routes you decide to first explore. For the sake of this walkthrough, we first recommend that you head forward and down some stairs to your right. This will lead to a location where some Lesser Lycanthropes will attack you. Fend these guys off as best you can -- they should be easy to slay at this point in the game -- and then explore a nook to your right. The camera should pan to show another gap, and another whip hook that can be used to cross it. Avoid your want to cross the gap right now. There's actually an item you should grab first, and doing so now will ultimately make your life easier.

Instead of venturing over the gap with the whip hook (which you will end up doing shortly), you should instead head to the left of where you fought the Lesser Lycanthropes. You'll need to work your way up and down some stairs and through the crumbling ruins of this once proud city. You'll eventually stumble across a staircase leading up towards a hole in a stone barrier, but it's actually to the left of this hole that's really important. There, tucked in a corner, you should find a dead body which will contain your very first Shadow Gem. Acquire this before moving on.